Saturday, September 25, 2010

Military terrestrial satcom market to grow slightly

European Microwave Week 2010, BOSTON, USA: Despite long production cycles and relatively small numbers of new satellites, the increasing sophistication of the terrestrial portion of Satcom networks will make way for slight growth in the radio semiconductor market.

The recently published Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) data model, “Terrestrial Military Satcom Platforms - Advanced Electronics Component Forecast,” projects a strong initial increase to peak in 2014, followed by a declining trend for the terrestrial portion of the military Satcom market through 2020.

The report projects the total terrestrial portion of the Satcom market will grow from an estimated $423 million in 2008 to as much as of $684 million in 2013, before falling off to slightly more than $500 million in 2020. This Strategy Analytics analysis also segments the communications systems by radio electronics and semiconductors, predicting that this sector of the market will be $85 million by 2020.

“The ability of forces on the ground to use satellite resources will continue to play a significant role in network-centric battle strategies. As terrestrial platforms become more sophisticated in response to evolving battlefield requirements, the radios are keeping pace by incorporating multi-band and higher frequency capabilities” noted Asif Anwar, Director, Advanced Defense Systems at Strategy Analytics, who is presenting on this topic at the European Microwave conference on Wednesday, September 29, 2010.

“Increasingly challenging radio requirements will create attractive opportunities for suppliers, limited primarily by military budget constraints and the resulting small quantity of satellite platforms.”

Based on this segmentation, Strategy Analytics estimates that the United States is the dominant consumer. Strategy Analytics also predicts the market value of the EHF (30-300 GHz) satellite frequency platform, driven by newer satellites with higher bandwidth capabilities, will show very strong growth and surpass the SHF (3-30 GHz) satellite frequency segment in 2018.